Sarah visits the General John A. Logan monument.

After reading about the civil war and about how people from right here in Southern Illinois were very much involved with it, Sarah became very intrigued with one man in particular, John A. Logan. "Here in Southern Illinois," Sarah exclaimed, "there is a community college, a grade school, a museum, murals, and other interesting dedications to his name. Why was he so important?"

This morning, in my kitchen in Murphysboro (John A. Logan's birth town, interestingly enough), Sarah and I researched why John A. Logan is so celebrated in the Southern Illinois area. As it turns out, John A. Logan was a racist man prior to his success as a Union General during the Civil War. He had been a Democrat, politically, but changed his views to be a supporter of the Republican party. Also, he served as a state Senator for three terms and ran for vice president, supported greatly by Fredrick Douglass during this time.

Without John A. Logan, there would be no Memorial Day. Sarah thought this was very interesting! Can you imagine not having the day to celebrate the men and women who serve to protect our freedom?

Learning about how important John A. Logan was to our Nation's history made Sarah want to visit one of the sites that was dedicated to him. Incredibly, one of the four statues that has been dedicated to him in the entire nation sits right in front of the Murphysboro Middle School in Murphysboro, Illinois. We decided this would be a great place to visit, because it was close, and because we thought that it was very pretty! An interesting piece of information is that this is one of the only statues that honors a civil war hero and also honors his wife. Logan's wife was also very active in the civil war efforts with her husband, and extremely active in her community. The huge marble statue sits in the school yard, surrounded each day by school children who wait for their parents to pick them up. Luckily, we visited on a Saturday so we could get a good look at it!

From Sarah's home in the Wham building at SIU, it is a 17.76 mile drive round trip. It only took about 20 minutes to get to the statue after I picked Sarah up. The statue sits at North 37 degrees (latitude) and West 89 degrees (longitude). If you put those coordinates into your GPS, you can't miss the statue!

All in all, it was a pretty exciting trip. We both learned a lot, and we got to see one of the coolest statues in the area, honoring a man who did so much not just for my community, but for this entire nation!